It's Back!

Season 42 of Jeff Probst's golden goose began on March 9, 2022 as CBS rolled out its 42nd installment of the long-running Survivor TV show. Beyond the first season, I don't think I know any of the people who have appeared recently on the program outside of host Jeff Probst, and that's ok with me. There are some people who tune in religiously to see Tribal Council every week as the game pits player against player in the battle for a million dollars and the ultimate title of "Survivor". It's riveting TV if that's your sort of thing, I'm told.

We do things a little differently here at HBIC, specifically on The Hockey Show on UMFM. As you may have heard at the end of the show last week, our Survivor contest is returning with us being back in the studio, and that means sixteen people will have the opportunity to win prizes to go along with fame and glory as The Hockey Show's 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs Survivor!

You might be wondering if we're going to maroon you on some tropical island for the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and our ever-present zero-dollar show budget says that we cannot and will not do that. However, if you're aware of the Survivor pools that are run between friends or at the office, you pick a name out of a hat, and that person on Survivor is your person for the run of the show. If he or she is voted off the island, the game for you is over, and you can continue watching if you like or breathe fire at your co-worker or friend who may still be in the running for whatever marbles your group threw in as ante for the pool.

The Hockey Show does something kind of similar. On April 21, we need sixteen people to call in and choose a number from 1 to 16. Each of those numbers will have a corresponding playoff spot assigned to them randomly. Whatever number you've chosen will select your team for the playoffs. Sounds easy, right? All you have to do is be near your phone that evening between 5:30pm and 6:30pm Central Time, call us, and choose one of the remaining numbers on the board to find out what playoff spot you've been assigned!

How does this Survivor thing work, you ask? The first caller who gets through at 5:30pm is put on the air and chooses #7. Card #7 is revealed to be FIRST-PLACE METROPOLITAN DIVISION. Whatever team ends up in first-place in the Metropolitan Division - either Carolina or the NY Rangers - would be Caller #1's team when the playoff starts. That takes card #7 off the board, and we move to Caller #2.

Caller #2 calls in and chooses #10. Card #10 is revealed to be WESTERN CONFERENCE WILD CARD #2. Whatever team ends up as as the second wild card team in the Western Conference - possibly one of Nashville, Dallas, or Vegas with Vancouver and Winnipeg still mathematically-eligible - would be Caller #2's team for the playoffs. That takes card #10 off the board and we move to the next caller, repeating the process until all 16 cards have been removed from the board and all 16 playoff spots in the Stanley Cup Playoffs have been assigned!

What makes this fun is that once your team is eliminated, The Hockey Show will call you and you'll deliver your team's exit interview just as the players on Survivor do at the end of the show. What might you say? Talk about how you're disappointed that a specific player didn't show up in the playoffs. Talk about how you never thought there would be an upset this early or how you're just lucky that your chosen team made the playoffs. Or you can be like retired baseball player Jeff Kent and talk about things that have no relevance whatsoever to the contest itself (but we recommend not doing that).


Of course, CBS' version of Survivor offers up a big cash prize and whole bunch of prizes from sponsors - both of which The Hockey Show has neither of - but we will make some prizing available in this contest! The grand prize winner who captures the Survivor crown will take home an NHL hockey jersey of some sort as I'm still bargaining with my sources for deals. There will be some smaller prizes handed out as "challenge prizes" much like CBS' Survivor does as well, and those are as follows:

• First shutout recorded in the playoffs.
• First hat trick recorded in the playoffs.
• First goaltender point recorded in the playoffs.
• First team eliminated from the playoffs.
• First to advance from the second round to the third round.
• First team to score seven goals in one game in the playoffs.
• First upset of the playoffs.

Any team that accomplishes any of these challenge goals will earn their Survivor poolie a prize! Prizes are books and t-shirts, and will be handed out while supplies and challenge goals last! Needless to say, teams can earn more than one prize in this challenge part of the pool, so choose wisely when it comes to the randomly-distributed teams across the sixteen cards!

The grand prize winner will receive an NHL jersey as the big winner of the contest. Based on what I have to work with in terms of my sources, we've offered up a Dallas Stars jersey, a Philadephia Flyers Winter Classic jersey, and a few other jerseys as grand prizes over the years, and this year will be no different. As to which jersey it will be, we should know shortly as I work to get something for a lower-than-retail cost. In the meantime, know that the winner of the contest will take home an NHL jersey!

That all sounds pretty good, right? Like the television game show, we also have some requirements that need to be met before you can participate. The good news is we won't have to have a medical team available like CBS does, but we do have a few must-have REQUIREMENTS for anyone to participate. They include:

1. You must call into the show on Thursday, April 21 between 5:30pm and whenever we fill all the spots in the contest. If all 16 spots aren't filled within the hour, I'll start selecting people I know who have been listening to the show for years. Don't complain - you had an hour to make one phone call!
2. A phone number and an email address. If you're calling us, I'm pretty sure you have at least one of these already. If you have neither, how are living in today's world?
3. A desire to watch your chosen team's progress in the NHL Playoffs. You don't need to follow them religiously, but it's better to know something about your team if/when it is eliminated.
4. It's helpful to have a Twitter account so that we can tweet you info when needed. If you have one, please follow me at @TeebzHBIC as I will tweet out stuff about Survivor throughout the contest! It's not necessary, but it is more fun!

Beyond that, this is a fun contest. It's not to be taken seriously in any way, and it's a nice way for us to reward listeners with some free gear. If this has enticed you to listen for the first time or come back to the show after not listening, welcome to the show and here's hoping you get into the contest! Just remember, though, that if your team gets bounced, we're calling you for that exit interview. If that scares you in any way, you have less than two weeks to work through that fear!

Be ready, folks, because this contest always is fun for everyone involved. Like CBS' Survivor, only one person can be crowned as "survivor" in this contest, and we're ready to kick things off on April 21! Here's hoping you'll call in for the best radio contest in Winnipeg!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!